Date A Live – 01

The official start of one of the more anticipated series of the season (according to the RC poll) is finally here, and suffice to say, it’s a tale of two halves. Indeed, the thing most people will come away with following this first episode was the rather drastic difference before and after the eyecatch—as the first half was ended up quite typical (how about that kick?) in terms of introductions, and the latter ended up escalating things quite quickly with a variety of sci-fi, action scenes. As such, Date A Live’s premiere ends up being something that seems like it’ll be a hit/miss depending on your preferences—as some may consider the first episode slightly rushed—but I feel as though it does enough to warrant some of the hype it’s been given, as well as a continued watch.

And for me, a large part of that belief comes from the feeling that there’s definitely something here to work with. For one, the animation seemed quite fluid throughout—lending itself to some pretty flashy scenes that are arguably worth watching the series for alone. Some aspects seemed somewhat grainy at times, but it seems like it’s more of something that came from the raw source itself, rather than reflective of the series’ production values. In addition, there’s a decent balance between the comedic and serious elements here—though the less serious elements were definitely more prevalent this episode. A proper mixture of the two could really make or break a series, and for now, it seems like Motonaga Keitarou’s doing his usual in terms of that aspect—though this doesn’t end up particularly surprising, as you’ll remember that I noted his superb adaptation of Jormungand possessed this aspect as well.

Moving on, it seems like there’s also a fairly large cast to work with as well—and subsequently a fair amount of side plot lines to go along with the whole spacequakes (150 million dead to start things off!), spirits appearing and needing to be eliminated plot lines we were given this first episode. It remains to be seen if this ends up developing well or not, and whether or not it’ll just end up being another type of Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, which it seems to share some similarities with. Though I suppose, even if the latter ends up being the case, it’s not quite a bad thing… considering how well received that was.

Looking forward, the general impression I get is that there’s definitely something worth watching here. Hearing some things from LN readers about how they seem like they’re going to rush through the novels has me slightly apprehensive, but I do love the rather distinctive style the series seems to have (especially the occasional sci-fi elements incorporated within). Of course, it also helps when you have someone like Itsuka Kotori leading things as the commander of an anti-spirit organization—as her 180 through the first episode was quite entertaining, and she’s voiced by Taketatsu Ayana too.

Series Note: Due to various changes in the coverage schedule (more on that at a later time), some authors will be changing series. As such, it is unconfirmed whether or not Date A Live will continue receiving coverage past this episode. The schedule will be updated in the next week to reflect these changes.

The first episode was great the idea of girls showing up with a bang is cool and the main character’s sister’s role spices things up, especially when you consider her masochistic second-in-command. His sister’s kick I was feeling that damn that had to hurt luckily for him she didn’t aim lower.

Given v3 and v4 are two halves of the same story, they’ll either have to do a two volume adaption or four volume. And from the current pacing I think they’re going too fast to be only looking at adapting two volumes.

Five chapters plus prologue and epilogue, assuming they’re required (v3 lacks epilogue, v4 lacks prologue since both volumes are half of a single story).

At the end of the episode they’re approximately 75% of the way through chapter 2 of v1, so I’m guessing they’re looking at this taking about three episodes. I don’t think they could compress the rest of the volume into a single episode so it only takes two.

I don’t know whether to keep watching this or not. It’s very pretty, but I’m not sure if I find it interesting enough.

I should mention, if you stop covering this, it will serve as a serious blow to the chances of me continuing to watch the series. I kind of hope you don’t stop, because there isn’t much else that’s caught my eye this season.

On a semi-related note, this is another anime that is going to continue streaming on Niconico before the TV airing, right?

I really hope that doesn’t become a trend, unless the streams become high quality. Right now this is really bothering me, since discussion on these shows are going to be happening well past what I’ve seen (it’s hard for me to go back to watching things in low quality).

I’m tilting towards the light-hearted side here. The premise of spacequakes and spirits are interesting, of course, but what’s one to think when you end the episode off with the male lead being asked to do something as ludicrous as play a galge in order to ‘defeat’ the spirit?

Regardless, I think its a pretty decent start. Didn’t feel like I was rushed through the explanation of the premise and with the simple introduction of characters, it’s a good way to build some anticipation in character development. Definitely pretty to look at, though. Will be following this.

As Reine and Kotori mentioned, the galge is his “training” for making the spirit fall in love, not the actual way-of-doing-so. They apparently share the same belief as Tonomachi that galges teach the user all one needs to know about interacting with women… or in this case spirits. :P

Well, we know they’re covering vol. 3 since one of the characters introduced in the PV’s is introduced in vol. 3. By extension though, they have to adapt at least part of vol. 4 since vol. 3 ends on a cliffhanger (and a pretty awesome one at that).

Just because volume 3 ends with a cliffhanger doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the anime will go past it into volume 4. For all we know they may plan on doing two seasons, we’ll just have to wait and see; not that your scenario isn’t the most likely.

Well… it kind of does in this case. I don’t want to put spoilers or anything but just trust me. Let’s just say that vol. 3′s ending and the beginning of vol. 4 are part of the same scene. If it’s split cour then maybe they could get away with it like in Fate/Zero, but I doubt it is.

The original light novel is highly popular in Japan so there´s a posibility for second season, also the author releases the volumes at a crazy fast speed, seriously, volume 5 was just release and volume 6 already had a release date. So far adapting volume 3 is confirmed by the PV but throwing an original ending would ruin the story.

They are probably going to cover up to vol 4… Which I hope it won’t end as a train wreck, also they seem to have skip some information, and the RIBBONS! those RIBBONS!, also this. http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/457/tonomachi.jpg , they skip the rankings of Tonomachi and Shidou

I have a theory that our MC was once prominent in dealing with Spirits, had his memories wiped, and Kotori is a fake sister (in the same manner as a Rolo Lamperouge), and his normal everyday life was actually a gift and a blessing.

I find it hard to decide whether to follow the anime or just keep aware of how advances in randomc or other blogs who see it.
I think it would be good to give him a chance as a comedy / romance cliche of the season, gave me good laugh and I liked the appearance of the spirit, two points to see the next episode and see how it goes.
Good job Zephyr, great publication.

As someone who rarely has seen the manga version before the anime version of things, I can say that it definitely switched up unexpectedly for me.

With the way it started out (and from scans and such), it looked like it would be some sort of slightly darker fantasy-style story (I mean, seriously, the first event happening being a weird phenomenon killing 150 million people sends that kind of message, lol). Next thing I know, it suddenly gets all bright and cheery (even though it was said that the spacequakes still occurred) and seeming like a typical harem style anime. Then, it’s suddenly a bit darker again with the whole spirit aspect, seeing Kotori as the freaking head of a huge, secret, organization. Then it switches BACK to being brighter and cheery again with Kotori basically making the way to FIX things IS practically turning Keitarou into a harem lead essentially, lol.

Okay, not exactly, but at least it sets an actual premise/reason for it happening rather than it seeming pretty “random” like most typical harem anime are.

The LN is pretty much identical in it’s bright/dark swapping, though it’s never quite as bad as, say, Cube x Cursed x Curious, it can get a little grim at times. Though it’s a bit more pronounced in this anime episode since they do it a bit quicker so it generates a bit of whiplash. :P

Hmm… different than what I expected. Like HalfDemonInuyasha, I also though the show switched gears unexpectedly back and forth. I get the feeling reading the LN would help a lot.

I thought the show was interesting enough to justify watching the next episode. It looks like it could be a fun ride, but I hope the pacing settings down a bit. It’s a little disconcerting reading comments that it appears to cover several volumes of the LN. That’s may work in some instances, but there are enough examples when that also doesn’t work.

I am kind of torn on this one, the first episode was not exactly what i was expecting. It was enough to keep my interest so far, so i will probably give it 3 or 4 more episodes before deciding whether i will keep up with the show or not.